no title

Whitehall may offer spruce-up grants

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJonathan Quilter | DispatchCarol McIntosh sits on the porch of her home in Whitehall. Her driveway is one thing she would like to repair or replace if the city council approves plans for home-improvement grants.

More Articles

When Carol McIntosh moved into her house on a cul-de-sac in Whitehall, the yard was choked with
dandelions and clover. She set about the painstaking task of killing the weeds and coaxing the
grass. Today, eight years later, her lawn is as lush as any on the street.

But the view of her property from the road still isn’t perfect.

“I have a vision,” McIntosh said.

She’s hoping this is where the city can help. Whitehall leaders are preparing a new grant
program that would reimburse homeowners part of the cost of exterior home-remodeling projects.

The Whitehall Home Reinvestment Program was introduced at Tuesday’s city council meeting and is
expected to be approved on June 3. Though the details might change, the program as proposed would
offer reimbursement of half the cost of an improvement project — up to $7,500 — for approved,
properly permitted work.

Grant recipients must have owned and lived in a house in the city of Whitehall for at least six
months before the project and agree to stay three years after. Under the proposed plan, an
applicant’s household income can’t exceed $100,000, though city spokeswoman Gail Martineau said
that figure might increase.

“We’ve already had over 120 phone calls on this,” Whitehall Mayor Kim Maggard said. “They are
bombarding us, and it’s not even been passed by council yet.”

That’s welcome news to Maggard, who envisioned the improvement plan even before she was elected
mayor. Maggard and other city leaders have set out to rehabilitate Whitehall’s image and to build
the base of homeowners while cutting back on the number of renters in the city.

In 2012, Whitehall launched its My Home Program, which offered down-payment assistance to local
homebuyers. Forty-four families have since closed on homes, receiving an average of $3,490 from the
city, Martineau said.

The city council likely will set aside $100,000 for the reinvestment program, money from a
community fund that Maggard said long went unused. She expects Whitehall residents to spend all of
it, with the average grant coming in between $2,000 and $3,000.

“We’re not selfless in this,” Maggard said, explaining that the city hopes the program will help
boost property values. “If a person drives through Whitehall for the first time through our
neighborhoods, perception is everything.”

McIntosh, 49, who lives on a street often swirled with a rainbow of chalk from the neighbor
kids, doesn’t know yet how much she’ll seek from the city. But she has no question that she’s going
to apply after Whitehall’s council approves the program.

“I think it’s great that they want to reward the residents who stay here,” she said.

She’ll probably start by asking for some financial help with the concrete driveway, which she’d
like to widen and replace. But she’d also like to paint the house and replace the garage door and
switch out the lighting and do something about that porch. And oh, that chain-link fence ...